Does COVID-19 Have You Feeling Overwhelmed? Here’s Ways to Help Ease Stress

It seems like since March our lives have completely flipped upside down. Events, weddings, vacations, concerts, and family gatherings have been cancelled. We've had to self isolate from the world, and everything except essential businesses are closed. To be honest with you, things are really hard right now. Mentally these are all major stressors that have caused many of us to feel stressed out, overwhelmed, and full of anxiety.

Everything in the world is so uncertain right now, and it seems no one has the right answers. It's okay to feel overwhelmed and stressed. In fact many of us are facing stress that we've never felt before. The Indiana State Department of Health released a short video outlining ways we can help ease this stress we're all feeling. These are unprecedented times for all of us.

The biggest takeaways include the following:

Don't discredit your emotional health, it is important to recognize and take care of your emotional health.

Stay virtually connected with others. Take time to call, or facetime loved ones. Make an effort to stay in touch with friends and family.

Take care of your body, eat well, get some exercise, and plenty of rest is important too.

Make time to unwind and enjoy activities that make you happy (while of course maintaining social distancing).

Stay informed from credible news sources, but also take a news/internet break.

Don't be ashamed to call your healthcare provider if you need extra help managing these emotions. It's okay to seek help.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and need help you can also call the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746.

Anxiety is something that I personally have had my own struggle with. In 2019 I dealt with some pretty rough family stuff, and my anxiety had kicked into full gear to the point for the first time in my life I had to be put on medicine for it. I'm telling you there is no shame in needing help. It took me too long to put my pride aside and ask for help, but I'm really glad I did. I learned better ways to cope with my anxiety, and by the end of 2019 through finding an outlet (for me it's powerlifting), and an amazing support system (my friends and family) I was in a better state mentally than I had been in a long time. Then 2020 happened and well here we are. One step up and two steps back. I'm hanging in there, I've been working hard to carve out time in my day to just do something I enjoy. That has helped. I'm also working to try and stay physically active, which is hard as I'm used to powerlifting and I can't really do that at home. So I've got a couple big tires I can flip, and I made my own piece of equipment called a slosh pipe, and I bought a small barbell. With those few things I've been trying to maintain a workout regimen because for me personally that is a stress reliever.

Take care of yourself, and reach out to loved ones. It's okay to struggle right now, just know you aren't alone.